For a moment in early 2020, it seemed like we might get a break from capitalism.
A novel coronavirus was sweeping the globe, and leaders and experts recommended that the US pay millions of people to stay home until the immediate crisis was over. These people wouldnt work. Theyd hunker down, take care of their families, and isolate themselves to keep everyone safe. With almost the whole economy on pause, the virus would stop spreading, and Americans could soon go back to normalcy with relatively little loss of life.
Obviously, that didnt happen.
Instead, white-collar workers shifted over to Zoom (often with kids in the background), and everybody else was forced to keep showing up to their jobs in the face of a deadly virus. Hundreds of thousands died, countless numbers descended into depression and burnout, and a grim new standard was set: Americans keep working, even during the apocalypse.
Now its been nearly two years since the beginning of the pandemic a time that has also encompassed an attempted coup, innumerable extreme weather events likely tied to climate change, and ongoing police violence against Black Americans and weve been expected to show up to work through all of it. I dont think people are well, says Riana Elyse Anderson, a clinical and community psychologist and professor at the University of Michigans School of Public Health. We are moving along but we are certainly not well.
For some Americans, working during the apocalypse is fatal think of the transit workers who died from Covid-19 in 2020, or the Amazon warehouse workers killed by a tornado on December 10 in Illinois. All disasters are workplace disasters for some people, said Jacob Remes, a historian and the director of the Initiative for Critical Disaster Studies at New York University. For others, the effects are more of a slow burn; the chronic stress that comes with putting on a game face at work, day in and day out, as the world becomes ever more terrifying.
Of course, Americans havent all quietly accepted the demand that we work through the end times. Record numbers are quitting their jobs in search of higher pay and better conditions. After more than 20 months of being asked to keep showing up uncomplainingly while everything crumbles around them, people are demanding a more humane approach to work in the age of interlocking crises.
A disaster, whether its the pandemic or climate change or the existential threat to democracy or all of the above, can help us to understand the ordinary structures of work differently, Remes said. The conditions we find ourselves in today, dark as they are, are an opportunity to remake American culture around an ethic of care rather than productivity, so that we can face the next disaster together rather than being forced to ride it out in isolated cubicles.
Since the pandemic began, workers in America have faced compounding and continuous crises, Anderson said. Theres the threat of the virus itself, which has taken a devastating toll on front-line workers, with line cooks, warehouse employees, and agricultural workers at especially high risk of death in 2020. The first waves of the virus also brought economic hardship in the form of job insecurity, slashed hours, and depleted savings, anxieties that fell especially hard on Black and Latinx workers who had less wealth than white ones to begin with, and who were less likely to receive federal assistance in the form of PPP loans.
As Covid-19 raged, Americans witnessed the murder of George Floyd and ongoing police violence against Black Americans, a reminder that the pandemic was not the only threat to Black life, as Anderson put it. At the same time, then-President Donald Trump refused to say whether hed accept the results of the 2020 election, stoking widespread fear over the fate of American democracy. Then, when he did lose the election, his followers stormed the Capitol in an insurrection that left five people dead.
That day, a tweet asking if we were really supposed to be working during the coup went viral, as workers questioned whether we were still expected to be productive while the highest levels of American government appeared to be crumbling before our eyes.
This is the black heart of productivity culture: the maniacal focus on the individual capacity to produce elides the external forces that could (and should!) short-circuit our concentration and work ethic, Anne Helen Petersen, co-author of the book Out of Office, wrote at the time. If we had time and space to process the tragedies of daily life, if we gave ourselves permission for deep empathy then maybe wed have the fortitude and will to fight for the changes that would actually make the world less traumatic.
Then the coup was over. Some companies gave employees extra days off, or expanded mental health options, or yoga classes. But mostly, it was business as usual. The answer to whether Americans were expected to work during the coup was: basically, yeah.
Since then, the crises have kept compounding. A new variant of the coronavirus stalks the globe, stoking fear and uncertainty in leaders and ordinary people alike. Tornadoes killed at least 90 people across six states in December in what one federal official warned will be the new normal due to climate change. American democracy looks ever more at risk, with experts warning that the country is sleepwalking toward a future in which votes no longer matter.
Workers havent just been sitting still through all this: Theyve been quitting jobs in record numbers all year long. Those numbers have included many low-wage workers who left for better-paying jobs, as the Atlantics Derek Thompson reports. Indeed, workers next year could experience the biggest pay increase since 2008. Thousands are also striking or joining unions to take back at least some power from their employers. And Americans from office workers to Olympians are speaking out about the importance of prioritizing their mental health.
However, talk of the so-called Great Resignation often ignores the experiences of people who might want to quit but dont have the savings (or inherited wealth) to risk walking out on a job, Anderson noted. Meanwhile, even if wages are rising, that doesnt mean employers or the country at large have figured out how to handle work in an age of constant disaster.
At the extreme end, the expectation that people keep working no matter whats going on around them can lead to their deaths. Some workers at the Mayfield Consumer Products factory in Kentucky said they were told they would be fired if they left their posts, even as deadly tornadoes approached. They and workers at an Illinois Amazon warehouse were, in effect, compelled to work by the almost sovereign power of their respective employers, with horrific consequences for them, their families and their communities, Jamelle Bouie wrote in the New York Times.
The pressures of work in the 21st century can also have subtler effects. For example, environmental and labor economist R. Jisung Park and his team have found that extreme heat, a more common occurrence thanks to climate change, leads to an increase in workplace injuries like falls and chemical spills. If youre in a baseline dangerous working environment, temperature is just one of many variables that might just make it incrementally harder to sustain focus and avoid injury, Park said.
Thats true not just in outdoor occupations like construction or agriculture, but in workplaces like warehouses that may lack air conditioning or other climate control, Park added.
Then there are the emotional and psychological consequences of trying to get your job done, day in and day out, during unceasingly chaotic times. Because of the pandemic and climate change, people are being forced to continually evaluate and reevaluate their risk tolerance, Remes said. Is it safe to eat in a restaurant? To send a child to day care? To take the subway?
Making these kinds of calculations all the time is exhausting and takes a toll on mental health. The constant, low-level stress of slow-moving disasters like the melting polar ice caps can make everything more difficult, including work, Remes said. It makes it harder for people to be productive, because theyre worrying about their basement flooding.
Seventy percent of respondents in one September survey said they were anxious or stressed about work, and 81 percent said they were more burnt out than at the start of the pandemic. Among Americans of color, who have experienced many of the pandemics interlocking crises most acutely, depression and anxiety and stress are spiking in ways that are disproportionate to their peers, Anderson said.
Companies have made some effort to acknowledge the problem. As Petersen notes, many white-collar employers have sent out emails to workers along the lines of feel free to take some time if you need to.
Such messages can ring hollow, though, when every day is more frightening than the next after more than 20 months of a pandemic, how do we even know when we need to take time? Moreover, those who need a break the most are probably the least likely to be offered one nobody in the Mayfield factory was given the opportunity to take time.
Experts say whats needed is, at minimum, a new approach to employee well-being and, at a maximum, a full rethinking of the meaning of work in America.
Companies can start by taking the onus off individual employees and offering time off to everyone in difficult times. Even if management encourages people to take time off, employees may fear repercussions if they actually do it, Anderson pointed out plus theyll be coming back to a mountain of work on their return. A better strategy is to simply give time off to all employees without requiring them to request it. Nike, for example, gave all office employees a week off earlier this year, and Bumble and LinkedIn enacted similar policies.
Beyond time off, more companies are also offering wellness perks from art classes to visits from therapy dogs, said Rebecca Rice, a professor of communication studies at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, who studies how organizations work during emergencies. Such extras can be nice, but ultimately theyre a temporary fix to a broader feeling of everyone being overextended, Rice said.
Employers need to understand that todays slate of overlapping crises is a new normal that perhaps requires different standards, Rice explained. That means having honest conversations with employees about what work is necessary and a priority and what work is not for right now. That could mean a daily meeting happens only three days a week or never.
These conversations are starting to happen in white-collar workplaces but have yet to permeate as much into lower-wage and service-sector work. While more companies institute time off for office workers, some Amazon warehouse employees say the company uses a high-tech monitoring system to watch their every move and goad them into working faster.
Tighter labor regulations, including those governing work in extreme weather, could help protect workers whose employers have not so far shown an interest in protecting them. More broadly, the disasters of the last two years should prompt a reexamination of what work is really for, some say. For Remes, the pandemic has shown the importance of care labor, from teaching to elder care to nursing. That should actually be the essential thing that we do with our lives, he said. Everything else should support that as opposed to that care and maintenance supporting the production of consumer goods.
Reorienting the American economy around care would mean fairly compensating workers in fields like child care and elder care, which routinely pay poverty-level wages. It would also mean providing other workers with the paid leave, flexibility, and reasonable schedules necessary for them to attend to their own care responsibilities at home.
Overall, surviving the disasters of the 21st century will require a new kind of strength from Americans not the dogged persistence to keep doing our jobs while the world falls down around us, but the empathy and generosity to come together to stop the collapse. As Remes put it, nothing is possible when we all have to pretend to be independent all the time.
Every day, Russell Kaye wakes up and thinks about how long the COVID-19 vaccine will protect him from the virus.
The 59-year-old photographer from Brooklin has been fully vaccinated practically since the option became available for his age group in Maine. He got a booster in October with the same kind of urgency, but he still checks new case numbers daily.
I think if I do get COVID, [the vaccine] will keep me out of the hospital, Kaye said. But Im not ready to test it.
It is a strange place to be on the first anniversary of the states vaccine rollout. While the shots have proven remarkably effective at preventing serious illness from the virus, a combination of factors including the highly contagious delta variant that arrived in the summer are allowing the virus to spread at record rates, far higher than when vaccines first arrived.
Although Maine is one of the most highly vaccinated states at 74 percent of residents, overall case rates over the past month are nearly three times higher than they were ahead of initial vaccine approval in December 2020. Unvaccinated people continue to account for a wide majority of cases and hospitalizations despite comprising roughly a quarter of the population.
Between Nov. 12 and Dec. 10, nearly 19,000 Mainers contracted COVID-19, according to state data, including more than 13,000 unvaccinated people and just shy of 6,000 vaccinated people. The data show about 1 out of every 160 vaccinated people tested positive for the virus compared with about 1 out every 34 unvaccinated people.
During the same period in 2020, a time that marked the beginning of Maines winter COVID-19 surge just before the first vaccine was approved, about 6,800 Mainers or about 1 out of every 200 people in the state tested positive for the virus.
Gov. Janet Mills noted the anniversary in a Wednesday statement, pointing to the states high vaccination rates and booster efforts. But with hospitalizations hitting another record high on Wednesday, she said the states work is far from done and pressed holdouts to get vaccinated.
Those figures show the vaccines are still providing good levels of protection, and cautioned that risk can vary widely across demographics, said Dr. Dora Mills, the chief health improvement officer at MaineHealth and the governors sister. An older vaccinated person is still likely safer than a younger unvaccinated person due to the potency of the delta variant, she said.
She remembered the first shipments of vaccines arriving at Maine Medical Center with a police escort, and her team crying when initial doses were administered. They could not have imagined then being in a surge now because the public did not realize how much the virus can mutate or anticipate the resistance to vaccines in some areas.
Its very discouraging, its a dark time right now, she said. Right now everyone needs to take care of their families and loved ones.
For Jordan Netzer, 49, of Princeton, that means still avoiding restaurants and keeping a mask on in public. He had relaxed doing the latter after getting a Johnson & Johnson shot in April, but started again with the delta surge. He was not sure what it might take to feel normal again.
Its been going on for so long it feels like a fact of life, he said of the pandemic.
More articles from the BDN
Leicester's game against Tottenham has been postponed.
Tottenham have already had their last two games against Rennes and Brighton delayed due to a COVID-19 outbreak. However, Leicester have also been suffering from a significant outbreak of the virus, and Thursday night's match has now been postponed.
It follows Watford's trip to Burnley being called off just two and a half hours before kick-off on Wednesday night, Manchester United's game against Brentford being postponed and Sunday's match between Spurs and Brighton also being delayed.
A statement from Leicester said: "Leicester City can confirm that the Premier League Board has decided to postpone Thursday nights fixture against Tottenham Hotspur.
"The decision was taken with guidance from medical advisors after the club resubmitted its application for postponement after confirmation this morning (Thursday) of further positive tests for COVID-19 within the first team squad. As a result, the club has an insufficient number of first team players available to fulfil the match.
"Given the increase in positive tests among first team personnel, first team operations at Seagrave will now be closed for 48 hours, serving as a circuit breaker to help reduce the risk of further infection. First team players and staff will undergo a subsequent round of testing on Saturday.
"The club regrets the inconvenience caused to Tottenham Hotspur and both sets of supporters by Thursday nights postponement."
Antonio Conte and Brendan Rodgers had both called for the game to be postponed on Wednesday.
Rodgers said: Weve still got a number of players out. Weve got nine players out through COVID and other medical issues. In terms of COVID, were still where we were.
Asked whether he wanted the game called off, he said: Weve looked at that. Unfortunately for us, we werent granted any dispensation, which was disappointing. Weve wanted to support the measures, but when we wanted support for the extreme situation we were in, its disappointing not to get the support. We were touch and go for the Newcastle game. Weve picked up a couple of injuries as well, that are COVID related because we cant rotate the team. Well put out the best team we can.
Conte similarly replied: Yeah, but for me its very difficult to speak about this topic. For sure, the Premier League didnt want to postponed the game against Leicester, maybe because we have to play against Burnley and Brighton. We postponed two games before. I can understand, we can understand.
On the other hand, I think we deserve to play our chance against Rennes to go to the next group. We dont find a good solution between UEFA and Premier League, why Tottenham has to pay for this? Its not fair we have to pay for a situation that isnt our fault?
I understand if we did something wrong but in this way, for the club, the players, the staff, its very difficult to understand whats happening.
(Photo: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV)- Many families across Central New York are taking extra steps to make sure their loved ones stay healthy during the holidays, and pharmacies are making sure they can take those steps.
Many pharmacies in the Syracuse area have at-home COVID-19 test kits available. NewsChannel 9 stopped at Wegmans, Kinney Drugs, Walgreens, and CVS, who have them. We also called the Rite Aide in North Syracuse who said they didnt have them at the time, but they usually do. Prices vary from $10-$24.
Check with your other local pharmacies to see if they have them.
CARSON CITY, NV December 13, 2021
Tuesday, December 14 marks one year since the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Nevada. From the first allocation of 17,550 doses of Pfizer vaccine through today, more than half of eligible Nevadans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
I am continually grateful and thankful for Nevadas public health professionals who have continued to work nonstop throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to care for Nevadans. The COVID-19 vaccine roll-out continues to be a historic and monumental effort and that wouldnt be possible without the medical community and those working on the frontlines as vaccinators, said Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak. The work is tremendous but is nowhere near done we are continuing to use every tool at our disposal to reach Nevadans and make sure they have access to their first dose, second dose or a booster dose.
Nevadas COVID-19 vaccination response has required partnership among all levels of government, community organizations and individuals looking to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19.
This monumental task began for the Nevada State Immunization Program and Local Health Authorities before the first doses of vaccine were received in the state and has continued with each announcement of new vaccine presentations, expanded eligibility and booster doses.
Throughout the past year communities statewide, local governments, organizations and the State have developed plans and ideas to ensure the vaccine was available when and where it was needed. Some highlights from the year include:
Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup: In October 2020, before the vaccine was available to states, Nevada joined with California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado as the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup to independently review the safety and efficacy of any vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration for distribution. Since the Workgroup formed, they have reviewed each decision issued by the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide feedback and input to support safe and effective vaccination for residents.
Vaccine Playbook: The first version of the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Playbook was released in October 2020 in anticipation of the vaccine being sent to states, and the Playbook has been updated as changes have been made regarding eligibility and vaccine availability. Nevadas Playbook for Statewide Operations was a Nevada-specific plan crafted with input from each county, recognizing the states diverse geography, economy and populations. The document has been updated as the response has progressed to provide additional guidance and detail about priority populations and vaccine eligibility.
Vax Nevada Days: This effort was announced in June and led by Immunize Nevada with support from the Nevada Governors Office and Nevada State Immunization Program. Through the eight-week award period, 440,988 vaccines were administered to Nevadans, following a declining rate of vaccinations experienced in the month of June.The effort included eight weeks of prize drawings, with the announcement of a grand prize $1 million winner. Incentives included cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $1 million and secondary education savings accounts for post-secondary education from $5,000 to $50,000. Additionally, more than 1,000 fishing licenses and nearly 500 Nevada State Park entrance permits were awarded to eligible residents. In total, 2,000 winners were randomly selected from all Nevadans who had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, no matter when their vaccine process was initiated.
Get Out the Vaccine: In July, Nevada became the first state to partner with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) surge teams offered by the federal government to assist the State in COVID-19 vaccination and outreach efforts. These teams targeted zip codes in Southern Nevada with low rates of vaccination and high rates of infection. Leveraging partnerships with community organizations, like Immunize Nevada and Mi Familia Vota, teams developed direct and targeted outreach in those zip codes. Teams canvassed 22 zip codes, supported more than 436 outreach and vaccination events and distributed almost 350,000 materials in the Las Vegas Valley.
Throughout Nevadas COVID-19 vaccination response, the goal has remained to ensure vaccine is available for all eligible Nevadans when and where they would like to be vaccinated.
COVID-19 vaccination and booster shots offer the best protection against COVID-19. State health officials remind Nevadans that everyone ages 5 years and older should get vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine approved for their age group.
Additionally, Nevadans ages 16 years and older are urged to get their booster dose when they are eligible (6 months after receiving their Pfizer or Moderna shots, or 2 months after receiving their Johnson & Johnson shot).
For more information on vaccination go to NVCOVIDFighter.org or call 800-401-0946.
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In the northern hemisphere, the arrival of winter has brought concerns about COVID-19 back to the forefront, with multiple countries reporting high case rates and warning of increasing pressure on hospital services.
The situation prompted Austria, a small EU member state where the daily infection rate neared 15,000 in mid-November, to go for the nuclear option it not only reimposed a three-week lockdown, but also made vaccines mandatory for adults from February 2022 in an attempt to increase its national vaccination rate, which currently stands at 66 percent.
The emergence of the latest COVID-19 variant of concern, Omicron, further ramped up the pressures on governments to make decisive interventions before their health systems are overwhelmed. With its unusually high levels of mutations, the Omicron variant might mean faster transmission and higher resistance to our current crop of vaccines. Thankfully, initial research from South Africa suggests that existing vaccines and boosters should still provide some measure of protection from hospitalisation or worse. Moreover, modern development and production methods should allow for the creation of an adjusted vaccine in a matter of months rather than years.
But many developed countries where vaccines are readily available have seen a relatively modest uptake. EU members Romania and Bulgaria, for example, have under 40 percent of their populations fully vaccinated. Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the President of the United States, reckons lasting community protection can be reached only after nearly 90 percent of the population is jabbed.
Thus, as they try to mitigate the threat posed by high case rates and the spread of Omicron, governments are introducing new policies to increase vaccination uptake in their countries.
The relatively politically palatable option of requiring vaccine passports for entering certain venues and shops, and thereby making the lives of unvaccinated people more restricted, has already been used extensively across Europe, despite it triggering significant protests in many countries, including Italy, Croatia and the Netherlands.
Policymakers in many countries may, therefore, be tempted to follow Austrias lead and introduce vaccine mandates in the near future to reduce hospitalisation rates and avoid more economically damaging restrictions. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already called for a debate on mandatory vaccines and Germanys new chancellor, Olaf Schulz, also voiced support for vaccine mandates.
Yet, government-imposed vaccine mandates can have serious long-term consequences they can brew social unrest, increase mistrust in government, and scar societies as severely as the pandemic itself.
In Austria, draft legislation has suggested that those unvaccinated would be summoned to some administrative authority and could eventually incur fines of up to 3,600 euros (about $4,060). With millions still unvaccinated, it may not take long for hundreds of thousands of Austrians to be reprimanded. Tens of thousands of Austrians have already been protesting, sensing a government overreach.
Most people who are hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine are not loud, somewhat unhinged anti-vaxxers who worry about being implanted with tracking chips through the jab. Many of them are sincerely concerned about introducing something new into their bodies, or simply want to understand the risks and benefits of the jab better. But vaccine mandates can change that. If governments impose vaccines on vaccine-hesitant people in a heavy-handed way, they may become more vulnerable to fake news or conspiracy theories, and end up joining more extreme anti-vax movements.
Rather than forcing the vaccine on people, policymakers should try to understand why people might be hesitant to take it, and focus their efforts on changing minds. This could help drive longer-term vaccination uptake, which will be crucial especially if annual COVID-19 vaccine boosters are needed.
The moment a government recommendation becomes a forced requirement, it changes the power dynamic between the state and the individual. Government-imposed mandates feel inherently sinister, even when the intentions behind them are wholly well-meaning. This is why even the World Health Organization (WTO) has cautioned against implementing COVID vaccine mandates, unless every other feasible option has been tried to convince people to get jabbed.
Vaccine mandates may make some people trust institutions less, which can in turn further reduce vaccine uptake. A study on attitudes to vaccination in Europe, published in Social Science & Medicine Journal in 2014, has shown that those who trust institutions involved in the vaccination process are more likely to be jabbed, and those who do not suffer an information deficit and become more vaccine-hesitant.
The continuing debate on vaccine mandates in wealthy nations also feels jarring in the face of poorer countries continuing lack of access to vaccines. Indeed, the share of people who received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine is already more than 76 percent in high-income countries, but stands at just 6 percent in low-income ones.
COVAX an initiative led by WHO to reduce vaccine disparity between high- and low-income countries initially aimed to distribute 2.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries unable to independently procure them by the beginning of 2022. But this lofty ambition has since been revised to 1.4 billion doses, partly due to supply issues. WHO is now concerned that the emergence of Omicron will lead to richer countries hoarding more jabs, which will exacerbate the inequality of vaccine distribution.
On the bright side, the toolkit for tackling COVID-19 is constantly growing, which can help countries with low vaccination rates. Antibody treatments, including the UKs recently approved Xevudy drug from GSK, has been found to reduce hospital admission and death by nearly 80 percent in high-risk adults. The easily consumed oral anti-viral drug molnupiravir has also been found to reduce the risk of serious illness by at least a third.
In an ideal world, everyone who has access to a safe vaccine that can protect them against COVID-19 and help mitigate the spread of the virus would take it. But in the real world, where many people have existing fears about vaccines and are routinely exposed to misinformation, getting everyone to accept the jab is not an easy task.
Forcing people to get vaccinated by imposing harsh penalties and restrictions, however, may do more harm than good. It can confirm peoples fears that the government elite is against them, or that they are losing their rights and liberties. All this could result in those who are vaccine-hesitant today becoming even more reluctant to follow the advice of authorities during future health crises.
Public health programmes require public consent to succeed. Governments that are currently considering imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates should therefore be aware that, while tempting in the short term, such policies can have grave consequences for us all in the long term.
The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
DAKAR, Dec 13 (Reuters) - At least 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines have expired in Senegal without being used in the past two months and another 200,000 are set to expire at the end of December because demand is too slow, the head of its immunisation programme said on Monday.
African governments have been calling for more COVID-19 vaccines to help catch up with richer regions, where vaccine rollouts have been humming along for more than a year.
Yet, as the pace of supply has picked up in recent weeks some countries have struggled to keep pace. Logistical problems, the short shelf life of vaccines that arrive from donors, and vaccine hesitancy have all kept doses from reaching arms.
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Up to 1 million COVID-19 vaccines expired in Nigeria last month, Reuters revealed.
"The main problem is vaccine hesitation," said Ousseynou Badiane, who is in charge of Senegal's vaccine rollout. "The number of cases is decreasing. They ask: 'why is it important to get vaccinated if the illness is not there now'?"
The majority of the expired doses were made by AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and supplied via COVAX, the dose-sharing facility led by the GAVI vaccine alliance and the WHO, he said.
Low vaccination rates in Africa will help prolong the pandemic and raise the risk of new variants emerging, such as the Omicron variant that was first identified in southern Africa and Hong Kong and is now spreading in many countries.
'NOT OPTIMISTIC'
Senegal has recorded more than 74,000 COVID-19 infections and 1,886 deaths, far below the numbers seen in many nations hit harder by the virus. The pace of infection has dropped off since a third wave in July spurred a spike in vaccine demand. The country occasionally records no new daily cases.
But apathy hurts the vaccination drive. Senegal has administered nearly 2 million doses of vaccines so far, Reuters data shows, enough to fully vaccinate only about 5.9% of the population.
It is currently vaccinating between 1,000 and 2,000 people per day, Badiane told Reuters, down from 15,000 during the summer. At this pace, it cannot use all the vaccines it has.
"We are not optimistic" about using the other 200,000 doses before they expire at the end of the month, he said. "We don't expect any demand increase before then."
Part of the problem is the short shelf life of vaccines that arrive from donors that include the United States and China. Senegal refuses to take vaccines with a shelf life shorter than three months, but even that creates difficulties.
Badiane hopes the government can introduce some kind of restrictions on the unvaccinated to drive up inoculation rates, including the use of a health pass as many other countries have done.
"Without the restriction, the population will not get vaccinated," he said.
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Reporting By Edward McAllister; Editing by Alex Richardson
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Scientists have worked at an unprecedented speed to develop coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines to contain the ongoing pandemic caused by the rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). To date, several COVID-19 vaccines have received emergency use authorization (EUA) from global regulatory bodies, and vaccination programs have commenced in the majority of the countries of the world.
Vaccines offer prophylactic immunization against specific diseases by triggering a persistent, adaptive immune response that generates immunological memory, protecting against future infections. Typically, T cells offer adaptive immune protection, and the humoral antibody response is mediated by B cells. After vaccination, the B cells get activated and produce neutralizing antibodies that can bind to target proteins of a virus and, subsequently, protect the individual from the disease. The cell-mediated immune response is associated with the activation of the effector CD4 T cells, which stimulate B cells to produce antibodies. These cells may also employ other cells, such as macrophages, which possess microbicidal functions. Activated CD8 T cells eliminate virus-infected cells. Both CD4 and CD8 memory T cells persist long after vaccination and are primed to become effector T cells. Previous studies have shown that natural killer cells also possess memory-like behavior.
Through vaccines, pathogenic protein subunits are introduced in an individual that stimulates the B and T cells responses. Some of the common forms of vaccines are inactivated viruses, vectors that infect cells to generate viral proteins, messenger RNA (mRNA), and viral proteins. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are likely to induce both CD4 and CD8 T cells responses.
In the current scenario, it is extremely important to measure the effectiveness of the vaccines as well as vaccination strategies. Typically, the response to vaccines is evaluated by detecting and measuring antibodies against viral proteins present in the serum. Vaccine response can also be evaluated by detecting activated B and/or T cells.
One of the shortcomings of antibody-based assays (e.g., ELISA) is that they cannot detect low levels of antibodies, which might be sufficient in protecting from a particular disease. In many instances, the levels of antibodies decrease significantly long after vaccination or natural infection, but they offer strong protection against the disease. Detectable levels of antibodies may develop, for antibody-based assays, at least a few weeks post-vaccination.
ELISpot is a technique that is used to detect T and B cells that are responsive to the vaccine. This assay can measure interferon-gamma or granzyme B from the activated cells. Although this method can indirectly assess the activity of immune cells, it is not always accurate.
A new study published on the bioRxiv* preprint server has hypothesized that T cell receptors (TCR) repertoire can measure the response to vaccines, as it would identify the TCR of clones that respond to the vaccination.
Previous studies have revealed that TCR is a heterodimer of two trans-membrane polypeptide chains (TCR and TCR) linked by covalent disulfide bonds and a complete TCR repertoire can reflect the T cells present in an individual.
Researchers have developed a novel and accurate method known as Tseek, which is unbiased and provides sensitive profiling of TCR and TCR chains or TCR repertoire by sequencing the TCR a and b chains. To evaluate the effectiveness of Tseek in the assessment of vaccine responses, researchers compared the responses to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and the annual influenza vaccines. Based on epidemiological and antibody data, the vaccines have very different rates of efficacy, i.e., the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine is 90%, whereas the influenza vaccine is 30%.
Scientists have evaluated the different outcomes of the vaccines using the Tseek method. In this context, they utilized PBMC samples from individuals who consistently received yearly influenza vaccines over several flu seasons for several years. Additionally, researchers collected PBMC samples from individuals who received two doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were obtained. Neutralizing antibody titers were also measured in COVID-19 vaccine samples.
This study revealed that an individuals TCR signature evolves gradually over the years in response to infections. Scientists found that SARS-CoV-2 vaccination induced a broad-spectrum T cell response that involved many expanded clones; however, this was not the case for the influenza vaccine, which elicited a narrower response involving fewer clones. In addition, many T cell clones provided temporal details that are typically not obtained from antibody measurements, especially, before the antibodies are detectable.
The current study revealed that TCR repertoire is a valuable biomarker for studying immune reactions to the vaccine. The authors highlighted some of the advantages of using Tseek to determine the response to vaccines, including it being a non-invasive approach, rapid assessment of vaccine efficacy, i.e., within a few days of vaccination, and a highly sensitive and specific method. The current study truly demonstrates that TCR repertoire sequencing can be effectively used for early and sensitive measurement of the adaptive immune response to vaccination, which can help improve the selection of the immunogen and optimize vaccine strategy.
bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
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Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Regions that require proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter indoor restaurants, theaters and events see a boost in inoculation rates after instituting the policies, a study published Monday by the Lancet Public Health found.
Countries starting at lower-than-average vaccine coverage in the study, such as France, Israel, Italy and Switzerland, experienced a large increase in uptake of the shots after requiring so-called "vaccine passports" for certain activities, the data showed.
However, the requirements did not have a significant effect in Germany, where vaccine coverage already was high, or in Denmark, where vaccine supply was limited, the researchers said.
Increases in vaccination rates linked to these regulations was most pronounced in people 30 years old and younger.
When restrictions were applied to only nightclubs and large events in Switzerland, for example, the largest increase in vaccination rates were seen among people under age 20.
Based on the findings, COVID-19 proof-of-vaccination requirements could help increase inoculation rates in vaccine-complacent groups, such as younger people, the researchers said.
However, implementation should be considered in the context of existing circumstances, such as vaccination coverage, vaccine hesitancy, levels of trust in authorities and pandemic trajectory, they said.
"As mass vaccination programs continue to play a central role in protecting public health in this pandemic, increasing vaccine uptake is crucial both to protect the individuals immunized and break chains of infection in the community," study co-author Melinda Mills said in a press release.
"Overall, we observed a significant uptick in anticipation of restrictions coming into place around 20 days before introduction, which lasted up to 40 days after," said Mills, director of the Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford in England.
COVID-19 certification, or "vaccine passports," require people to have proof of their being fully vaccinated, having tested negatively for the virus or having recovered following infection to access public venues and events.
Despite objections from people who consider the policies an infringement on civil liberties, several cities across the country have instituted them, including Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco.
For residents of these cities, proof of vaccination is required to enter and dine at restaurants, attend concerts and sporting events, or see a movie in a theater.
In addition to helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 in public areas, some studies suggest that requiring proof-of-vaccination might encourage more unvaccinated people get the shot, particularly those who perceive their own risk from the virus as low.
For this study, Mills and her colleagues assessed vaccination rates before and after the institution of vaccine passports in six countries that introduced them between April and September 2021.
The countries included in the analysis were Denmark, Israel, Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland.
Modelling was used to estimate what vaccination rates would have been in each of these countries without vaccine passports.
The models were based on vaccination trends from 19 otherwise similar control countries without similar proof-of-vaccination requirements.
In countries in which vaccine coverage previously was low, introduction of COVID-19 vaccine passports was associated with a significant increase in the number of additional vaccine doses per million people.
Israel experienced a 24% boost in vaccine doses administered after implementation of the requirements, while France saw a 13% increase and Italy and Switzerland each had a 7% rise, the data showed.
Compared with the 19 control countries, daily COVID-19 case numbers decreased after proof-of-vaccination implementation in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, but increased in Israel and Denmark.
"We know that certain groups have lower vaccine uptake than others, and it may be that COVID-19 certification is a useful way to encourage vaccine complacent groups, like young people and men, to get vaccinated," study co-author Tobias Rttenauer said in a press release.
"However, COVID-19 certification alone is not a silver bullet for improving vaccine uptake and must be used alongside other policies, such as targeted vaccine drives," said Rttenauer, a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford.
A highly anticipated clinical trial in eight sub-Saharan countries is the first to specifically evaluate the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine in people living with HIV, including those with poorly controlled infections. It also is the first study to evaluate the efficacy of vaccines in this case, Moderna mRNA-1273 against the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
In addition to examining the efficacy of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in people living with HIV, the study investigators seek to identify the optimal regimen for this population and how it might vary based on whether an individual has previously had COVID-19 or not.
The trial will be conducted in East and Southern Africa regions of the world that have been highly impacted by HIV. It is expected to enroll about 14,000 volunteers at 54 clinical research sites in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya, where adult HIV prevalence ranges from 4.5% to 27%.
The study name, Ubuntu, borrows the Nguni word meaning 'I am because you are,' and embraces the concept of African coexistence and community. It refers to the interconnectedness of African nations and their collaborative efforts to combat HIV and COVID-19 in this region of the continent.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, but access to effective vaccines, especially mRNA technology, has been very limited. The Ubuntu trial will provide safety data to regulators and assess correlates of protection from COVID-19, and it will answer important questions on mRNA vaccine dosage regimens among people living with HIV."
Dr. Nigel Garrett, co-chair of the study and head of Vaccine and HIV Pathogenesis Research at the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)
To find these and other answers, the study is expected to enroll about 12,600 people living with HIV and about 1,400 who are HIV-negative. About 5,000 of the volunteers will have previously had COVID-19, confirmed by an antibody blood test done at initial enrollment. All participants will receive the Moderna vaccine, but dosages and schedules will vary depending on previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Organizers said study participants living with HIV will receive access to optimal HIV treatment throughout the course of the trial.
"This region faces a huge HIV burden," said Dr. Glenda Gray, Ubuntu study protocol lead adviser and president of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). "Although safe and effective vaccines have been developed for COVID-19, HIV and COVID-19 are on a collision course," she added. "The impact of COVID-19 on people living with HIV is a concern for the continent, particularly in light of the recently-sequenced omicron variant set to drive South Africa's fourth wave and further infections globally."
Dr. Philip Kotz, one of the lead study investigators, said the Ubuntu study would not be possible without the crucial participation of rural communities across Southern and East Africa. "These communities have been disproportionately impacted by the twin pandemics of HIV and COVID-19, and they now have an unprecedented opportunity to help advance science and improve our understanding of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in the context of HIV."
Dr. Larry Corey, principal investigator of both the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), and co-leader of the network's vaccine testing pipeline, said there currently are no U.S. government-sponsored studies of COVID-19 vaccines that quantitate vaccine efficacy among a diverse population of people infected with HIV. This study seeks to address this knowledge gap and establish whether mRNA vaccines are as effective in people living with HIV, particularly those with advanced disease, as they are in those who are HIV-negative.
The trial is sponsored by the SAMRC and funded by the U.S. government and supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) within the National Institutes of Health. Funding originates from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Countermeasures Acceleration Group (CAG).
"Vaccination and treatment are critical for those who face the dual threat of HIV and COVID-19, as they remain at high risk of acquisition and transmission and potentially can be the origin of future variants," Corey said. "It is imperative that we as scientists and as society double-down on global efforts to find and make available effective vaccines and treatments. This study represents an important step forward in our efforts to reduce the burden of COVID-19 among HIV-infected persons and understand whether current dosage regimens are adequate."
The Ubuntu study is led by the NIH's CoVPN and modeled on extensive community engagement protocols pioneered and successfully implemented by the CoVPN and its research partner, the HVTN. Both networks are headquartered at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.
